奥巴马呼吁维持学生贷款低利率

Leading：

美国总统奥巴马为谋求连任而奔走各州的大学，每到一地，他总要在紧凑的行程中挤出时间对大学生发表激情演讲。在演讲中，奥巴马一再呼吁维持学生贷款低利率。

U.S. President Barack Obama visited American college campuses，looking for support for his plan to hold down federal student loan interest rates. The president is appealing to young voters，who overwhelmingly① supported him in the 2008 election.

President Obama told students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that he and his wife Michelle know what it is like to spend years paying off college loans.“Michelle and I，we have been in your shoes，”said Obama. “Like I say，we did not come from wealthy families. So when we graduated from college and law school，we had a mountain of debt. When we married，we got poor together.”

The president is calling on Congress to extend a law that cuts federal student loan interest rates to 3.4 percent. Those rates will double if the law is allowed to expire July 1.“We cannot make higher education a luxury. It is an economic imperative②. Every American family should be able to afford it，”Obama added. Obama urged students in North Carolina to use the phrase“Don’t double my rate” on Twitter to press U.S. lawmakers to extend the student loan interest rates cut.

In emphasizing his personal experience，Obama drew a contrast with his Republican Party opponent，Mitt Romney，whose father was a wealthy auto industry executive. But in an unusual move，Romney said that he agrees with the president that low student loan interest rates should be extended. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives say they are deciding whether to support a temporary extension.

President Obama said that allowing the interest rates to double would hurt more than 7 million students. Student loan debt in the United States is higher than that for credit cards or automobile loans. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that 15 percent of Americans，about 37 million people，owe money on student loans. The total amount of those loans is estimated to be between $870 billion and $1 trillion.

Notes：

①overwhelmingly adv. 无法抵抗地

②imperative n. 必须履行的责任；必要的事

1.What is Obama’s purpose to mention his personal experience in the second paragraph？

A. To show he was poor when young.

B. To attack the American education system.

C. To imply that high loan interest rates are hard for poor students to bear.

D. To criticize the student loan.

2.What did President Obama advocate to help reduce college students’financial burden？